Libyan jird

Libyan jird
The Libyan jird (Meriones libycus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Western China. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, intermittent saline lakes, hot deserts, and rural gardens.
Description
The Libyan jird is a large species of jird with a head-and-body length of , a similar-length tail and a weight of . The head is broad with large eyes, the fur is fine and dense and the hind legs are long. The upper parts are greyish-brown, darker in colour than the midday jird (Meriones meridianus), which is usually smaller. The hairs on the underside have white tips and grey bases whereas the midday jird has all-white underparts apart from a brownish chest stripe. The tail is pale brown except for the terminal third of the tail which is deep brown or blackish. The claws are dark-coloured, and the soles of the hind feet are partly hairy so that patches of bare skin are visible. In parts of its range it may be confused with Sundevall's jird (Meriones crassus) but that species is smaller, has pale claws and a smaller dark tail tuft.
Distribution and habitat
The Libyan jird is native to North Africa and parts of Western and Central Asia. Its range extends from Mauritania and Morocco to Saudi Arabia, the Near East, Kazakhstan and Western China. Its typical habitat includes deserts and semi-deserts, river floodplains, wadis and areas with stable sand-dunes. It sometimes occurs in arable land.
Ecology
The Libyan jird may live alone or in small colonies, and is more sociable in winter when colonies may contain twenty or thirty individuals. It inhabits a burrow up to deep which is a fairly complex series of passages with multiple entrances; an empty burrow of the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) may be used. The Libyan jird is a diurnal species and forages for seeds, bulbs, tubers and leaves, as well as any dead insect it may find. It often carries the food back to the burrow and here large quantities are stored in chambers near the surface, deeper burrows being used for nesting. It is opportunistically migratory, moving to new territory when food becomes scarce. Breeding takes place throughout most of the year with several litters of about five young being born.
In the man-made desert known as Aralkum that has been formed as a result of the shrinkage of the Aral Sea, the Libyan jird has made use of the new habitat where it lives alongside other small rodents including the northern three-toed jerboa, the midday jird and the great gerbil. These rodents are about four times more abundant on the dried-up seabed than in the surrounding terrain, and the presence of this abundance of rodent prey has attracted carnivores such as the red fox, the corsac fox, the mountain weasel, the steppe polecat, the marbled polecat and the Turkestan wildcat.
The Libyan Jird has many adaptations to counteract the extreme temperature fluctuations it experiences in the deserts it inhabits. The most influential and prominent change is its ability to manage its body temperature. During hot summer days the Jird’s body temperature maintained an average of 38.20 degrees Celsius with a 0.87-degree fluctuation. In the winter days it was 37.0 degrees Celsius with a 0.22-degree fluctuation (Alagaili et al, 2016). Maintenance of body temperature is essential to a Jird’s survival and inhabitants of the desert biomes it lives in. Another adaptation to battle these temperature fluctuations is the Jird's ability to manage its circadian rhythms. In a study done on two different species of Jirds that were exposed to twelve days of light and twelve days of dark it was seen that even in untraditional light and dark patterns the Libyan jird was still able to maintain and sustain its normal circadian routine. After the first twenty-four hours it was seen that the Jird exhibited natural rhythms (Alagaili et al, 2020). An animal unable to sustain a natural rhythm can be highly influenced by its environment and can cause a lower fitness (Alagaili et al, 2020).
Status
The Libyan jird is a common species in suitable habitat across its wide range. It is presumed to have a large total population and is regarded as a pest in some areas where it is present in cropland. No special threats to this species have been identified, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
References
Libyan jird
Fauna of Libya
Mammals of West Asia
Mammals of Central Asia
Mammals of North Africa
Libyan jird
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot